Irving Waters - The Wuhan Mission

Xue Lin walked in the door of her sparsely furnished apartment that she had been living in for four months. The wooden venetian shutters cast a striped shadow on the old wooden floorboards. She had spent many evenings alone in the apartment occupying herself with keeping physically fit and staying in touch with her hand-to-hand combat skills. She maintained her cover, doing typical internet searches for a geeky lab assistant and talking with her two friends from the lab about girl stuff.

Tonight, after making her social phone calls in front of the audio bugs in the living room, trying to make the topics as uncomfortable as possible for the techs listening at the other end, she turned some screechy Chinese opera music on her phone and left it under one of the bugs for her listeners, and then she pieced together her communication rig from the parts she had hidden around the room in the various household items. When the clock showed 8:05pm she made the call.

“Hello Blue Eyes, this is Snow Forest. I’m in the bathroom.”

“Copy that Snow Forest,” Sam Chilvers’ voice came through the ear piece.

“I’m doing a number two,” she whispered, close to the microphone.

“Over the line Snowflake. WAY over the line.”

Laughing now, she asked: “How’s the shoulder Blue Eyes?”

“It hurts when it’s about to rain. How YOU doin’?”

“I’m seeing three new guys going in to the lab with Wu.”

“Scientists or Government?”

“White coats.”

“Understood. Listen, I still don’t know what the package is, but I’m trying to find out. I think it’s safe to assume now that it’s a bio-weapon of some sort, but I’m just guessing. It’s clearly gotten very hot lately, so you had better be ready to move soon. These guys will at some point be under orders to capture or kill you. If they catch you they will string you up by your pigtails and you will be a star on our wall.”

“Jesus Sam, you are so dramatic. Are you having your period again?”

Chilvers laughed hard. Xue Lin was in danger but she was still a firecracker. That levelheadedness was a quality that they required in their operatives. Calm under pressure, a sense of humour when needed.

“Listen,” said Xue Lin, “you tell me what the package is when you know. I’ll handle this end. I could use some more tools though.”

“Yep, Jimmy can probably get you most of what you need. Are you comfortable using Jimmy?”

“I… suppose so,” she replied.

Sam paused, then continued a little hesitantly: “Make a list for him. I’ll tell you where to go meet him with it. Best to change it up from time to time. Good?”

“Fine Sam.”

“I’ll let you know what he says,” Sam said. “Keep your head down. I’m here for you kiddo. By the way, there was a mess in New York involving Wu’s daughter. She’s dead.” Sam paused for a moment thinking about Roet’s drinking problem, and how the knock on effects could be so tragic.

Sam continued: “Keep a special eye on Wu. We don’t want him running off the road.”

“Jesus, what happened?”

“I can’t tell you just yet. It’s still classified. Let’s talk soon.”

“Don’t run out of maxi-pads Sam. Over and out.”

Sam remained silent as Xue Lin ended the call.

Xue Lin packed her communications up and headed down the stairs and over the road to the crowded, dirt-floored restaurant for dinner while she thought about her list of needed tools.

Sam was already sending the urgent message off to Roet:

‘Snow Forest needs tools. Tell your Man she will have a list for him tomorrow. He names the location. Evening is best.’

While she was eating, Xue Lin took out a sharp pencil and began scribbling her list on a notepad in tiny letters, unreadable from more than two feet away.

• Micro GPS tracker: small as possible, long range

• Rohypnol: 2 large doses, liquid form, fast action, out for 1 hr+

• SAT-phone with Bluetooth earpiece

• Kevlar Backpack…

Summoned to see the Chairman, the three scientists were now in the back of a red flagged long limo in Beijing, sitting in silence. The driver bypassed the center of Beijing and followed signs leading towards the Chauyang district. Each of the three scientists made the mental connection that the driver was taking them to the Beijing Capital Airport.

The Chairman sat at a large modern desk in an executive office in the empty wing of the airport, still under construction. At his feet under the desk were three pelican cases. Two body guards stood inside the door and two outside. The Chairman smoked a large cigar, blowing poorly formed smoke rings out over the desk. He had eaten too much too fast an hour earlier in his Government building where his meals were specially prepared. He’d eaten Beijing Duck for two, and was already feeling uncomfortably gassy and wished that the scientists would arrive early so he could get this meeting out of the way and wouldn’t have to break wind in front of his guards.

A hard looking man in a black suit hailed the limo to the curb at an abandoned wing of the airport. He nodded at each of the three men as they got out.

“Please follow me. The Chairman is waiting.”

The scientists followed the man, walking at a brisk pace along the sterile corridors of the airport’s administrative building. One of them quipped to the other next to him: “If I’d known that studying science would lead to International Travel, I… ahh”

His voice trailed off as he realized that he didn’t have anything funny to say.

They reached a door marked “Executive Office” with two guards outside, and the man knocked twice sharply and opened the door inward without waiting for an answer. He gestured for the three nervous men to enter, and shut the door behind them without following them in.

“Welcome gentlemen,” said the Chairman without getting up. “I thank you for coming to see me on this very auspicious day.”

The scientists nodded and one of them mumbled almost inaudibly: “Thank you Sir.”

“In sport, in the arts and indeed in all life, the best performers have the quietest minds during the moment of truth.”

The scientists looked back at him, trying to guess where he would go next with his oncoming soliloquy.

The Chairman widened his eyes for effect:

“The King was loved.

“The people of his kingdom drank contaminated spring water.

“They went mad.

“‘The King has gone mad’ they said.

“Until the King himself drank the spring water and went mad.

“‘The King has regained his sanity’ they said.”

The Chairman paused and looked at each man one by one, each completely bewildered by the Chairman’s parable.

“China has bestowed great honor on each of you. Today, you will take three great gifts to the West.”

The Chairman opened a brown leather folder and spread out three folders on the desk with the scientists’ names on them. He gestured for the men to pick them up and open them.

“As you can see, you will all be going to America. One to Detroit, one to Los Angeles, and one to New York City. You will each take the virus through customs and go directly to the address in each of your itineraries. You will be told what to do then. We have a well paid network of highly respected professors, high level administrators and graduate students who are PLA officers, all embedded in the most prestigious universities of America. We have access to all of their research databases. Your academic connections will be legitimate because the Americans think that we are collaborating with them.”